Monday, 30 July 2012

Many of you might be already aware of the incredible work carried out at the House of the Telephus Relief in Herculaneum over the last few years, but this story ran in the Guardian newspaper recently and I thought it deserved a mention!

Buried by Vesuvius nearly 2,000 years ago, archaeologists at Herculaneum have excavated and carried out the first-ever full reconstruction of the timber roof of a Roman villa

For almost two millennia, the piles of wood lay undisturbed and largely intact under layers of hardened volcanic material. Now, after three years of painstaking work, archaeologists at Herculaneum have not only excavated and preserved the pieces, but worked out how they fitted together, achieving the first-ever full reconstruction of the timberwork of a Roman roof.

With several dozen rooms, the House of the Telephus Relief was "top-level Roman real estate", said Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, the director of the Herculaneum Conservation Project (HCP). It was more of a palace or mansion, thought to have been built for Marcus Nonius Balbus, the Roman governor of Crete and part of modern-day Libya, whose ostentatious tomb was found nearby.

The most lavishly decorated part of the immense residence was a three-storey tower. On the top floor was a nine-metre high dining room with a coloured marble floor and walls, a suspended ceiling and a wrap-around terrace. It offered the owners and their dinner guests a heart-stopping view across the silver-blue Bay of Naples to the islands of Ischia and Capri.

And now it is providing the archaeologists of Wallace-Hadrill's project with one of their most exciting finds: the timber roof of the Roman villa. "It is not unheard of for bits of roofs from the classical world to survive," said Wallace-Hadrill. "But it is incredibly rare."

What his archaeologists uncovered, however, was something altogether more comprehensive – almost 250 pieces, which they were able to piece together. "It's the first-ever full reconstruction of the timberwork of a Roman roof," said Wallace-Hadrill.Read the rest of the article here.

Friday, 27 July 2012

From theJournal of Raman Spectroscopy, a report called "Field Raman analysis to diagnose the conservation state of excavated walls and wall paintings in the archaeological site of Pompeii."

Abstract:This work presents the results of field Raman analyses, assisted by a hand-held energy dispersive-X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, to experimentally determine the composition of compounds present in the walls and wall paintings of two Pompeian houses, one with many luxurious decorative elements (the House of Marcus Lucretius, Regio IX, Insula 3, House 5/24) and a more modest building (Regio IX, Insula 3, House 1–2). These houses were excavated 150 years ago, and the majority of the rooms have been exposed outdoors. The chemical attacks of the acid gases and the biological colonisation can be considered the most serious problems of the archaeological remains from Insula IX 3 of Pompeii. The walls and wall paintings exposed to the rain-wash are the worst preserved ones, probably due to a continuous cycle of SO2 attack to the original materials, involving loss of plaster. This severe decay was not observed in the rooms covered by roofs; in these last rooms, the most noticeable pathologies are the presence of high humidity in the walls and the elevated amount of efflorescences.

Tuesday, 24 July 2012

I am currently researching and writing up four fresco fragments held in Australia at Maquarie University. I was hoping that someone here might recognise the iconography / design on the following fragment. I have yet to come across it or make note of something similar whilst working in Pompeii and am hoping that someone on the blog might have come across it in Pompeii or possibly seen it in Roman wall painting elsewhere. I would like to be able to cite examples of its use in particular structures as part of my write up and any information or photographs would be helpful in sending me in the right direction. The image is below.
I am happy to acknowledge and cite you in my paper for anything you may be able to provide.

Thursday, 19 July 2012

Would anyone be kind enough to share their photographic images of the properties at 8.1.4 (the so-called 'toll station' within the Porta Marina) and/or the Sarno Baths at 8.2.17-23?

Over the past few years, although I received SANP permissions, I was unable to access these two properties due to the continued stabilisation work at 8.2.17-23 and the rebuilding of the Villa Imperiale. I would very much like to include them in my research on the properties of Region 8, but as I wrap up my work I find it difficult to draw definite conclusions from my research perspective due to a lack of visual information. I am specifically looking for images inside both of these properties that you may have taken within the last 30 years.

Of course, I would be very happy to include the appropriate citations of any images shared with me for my research study purposes. I am contactable at sera baker at hotmail dot com (all one word) and I have access to a Dropbox account if that would make it easier.

Friday, 13 July 2012

This takes the prize for most bizarre story of the year (so far!): two local boys with two female tourists (from Russia and the Ukraine) broke into the scavi to have sex and were caught in the Brothel!

The people over at VesuvioWeb have collated many of the images of lararia from the PompeiiinPictures website into a single collection. Very handy to point students to, or if you're working on this sort of thing.

Sunday, 1 July 2012

Insula VI.9 has been considerably revised, adding pictures originally
taken by Tatiana Warscher and held by the Deutsches Archäologisches
Institut Rome.

We would like to thank the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut for the
honour of allowing us to use their images, which remain their copyright. We would also like to thank Prof. Dr. Reinhard Foertsch, Universitaet zu
Koeln, Archaeologischen Institut, for his
enthusiasm and help.

The Warscher photographs have been a pleasure for us to input as they show
so many features that are sadly no longer visible, including those lost in war
damage. We feel they have considerably added to our coverage of VI.9. See The houses of Insula VI.9

Additionally we have updated 280 other pages to include new pictures, new
plans and new information.